Amy yanks her nails out of the door, eyes widening at the wood she's gouged with her bare hands. She looks at her nails, then looks at the psychotic man in front of her.
"Sorry!" she remarks, before flailed her hands at him.
Still unable to get into melee, Shirin fires an arrow.
"Are they, are they dead yet??" Toad asks anxiously, covering his face with his hands but peaking out between his fingers.
Finally the onslaught downs the man, who falls with a grunt face first, obscuring the slowly growing pool of blood, before the swarm of rats cover his body. Soon the only sounds in the storage room are the party panting from the exhaustion of combat, and the sicking sound of rats feasting.
Victor tries not to look directly at the gizzly sight. "Yeah they are..." He moves back towards the door. "Can you get them to stop?"
Victor will check the area for anything of use once the horror show stops.
"Yea...no problem..." Toad clicks his tongue and the swarm begins to dissipate, the rats diminishing, running off into the shadows, and almost evaporating into thin air, until only Toothy, his fur red and slick, wobbles around the corner back to Toad. He picks the rat up with both hands and places him back on his shoulder. "Good boy."
Toad then searches the remains and the room along with Victor.
Amy covers her mouth at the sight of the rats eating the crazy people. As the rat returns to Toad she takes a nervous step away from it.
I think I'm going to be sick...
Amy takes a few steadying breaths,, then enters the room, helping look for anything of use while pointedly ignoring the corpses.
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"I think that my allies may be as dangerous as my opponents. There is something very, very, very wrong about Toad and Toothy"
"Well, that was, uh"
He doesn't finish the sentence.
"Necessary." Toad finishes George's sentence with finality. "These people and things will kill us if they have the chance. We have to strike first or else we'll end up like these cultists, or worse. It's gruesome, I know, but it's us or them. Kill or be killed." Toad wipes his brow, smearing fresh blood across his forehead. "Let's keep moving."
"We can't just attack people on sight remember that. The folks back at the chapel gave us a chance though it was a close thing I'll admit. There's good people still trying to hold on despite this place, not that I amn't advocating against caution with strangers here."
This clearly used to the a storage room for personal effects of the patients in the asylum. A thick layer of dust over some of these items speaks to the little hope some patients have of ever leaving this place. The cultists have ransacked the room, and whatever could have been of value in here is now gone.
"We can't just attack people on sight remember that. The folks back at the chapel gave us a chance though it was a close thing I'll admit. There's good people still trying to hold on despite this place, not that I amn't advocating against caution with strangers here."
"I can't remember anything, that's the problem!" Toad snaps back. "And don't lecture me on safety when just about everything in this place is literally trying to stab us in the back. If we aren't paranoid, we die!" He gaze droops to the floor. "Sorry Victor, I don't mean to fight, it's just this place is starting to get to me... And this--" he motions to the ransacked room, "another useless room, with no answers or escape. It's just frustrating. C'mon, let's keep going."
Finding nothing of any use, Amy heads off down the hallway after Toad, nervously looking this way and that and shrieking at every stray sound.
If the paranoid survive, surely she'll be the one to make it... Right..?
Desna protect me!
Victor nodded at Toad he didn't want to give out to him, he felt the frustration too. "I understand but just be mindful, things will not improve if we only add to the horror of this place. Perhaps the next room will be of more benefit."
.
"I agree, but man this place makes one almost WANT to despair, almost want to just end things. Lets take the first door to the south"
Opening the door, the party finds what appears to be a records room. The handles of dozens of drawers frown from the faces of numerous matching cabinets. Many of the drawers are open and their contents—volumes’ worth of stray parchments—blanket the floor. A single door sits to the west.
"There might be useful information in here for us if only things weren't in such disarray. Lets have a look around, before heading elsewhere. Since no one has recognised us look out more for things with recent dates."
Toad glumly fishes through the sea of papers, not expecting to find much...
Amy follows the others into the room and looks around nervously.... Eventually she begins to help them dig through the papers.
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It was clear who ever pulled all these files out and scattered them across the floor was looking for someone in the "Z" section as patients with last names starting with "Z" are predominant. The rest are mundane records of years of patients admitted to the aslyum. However, after some digging, four records stand out.
Patient: Shirin
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Ethnicity: Kellish (?)
Age: 28-32
Admitted by: Count Haserton Lowels
Admitted for: Amnesia, fugue state
Symptoms: Unresponsiveness, lack of memory, confusion, associative behavior
Notes: Lowels stated patient was "personal detective", though did not elaborate. Appears to be from Garund, likely Kellish. No indication of spouse, but Lowels mentioned family, possibly a sister, though again did not elaborate. Scaring across the body and on the cranium indicates a life-time of combat.
Patient: Malugar
Sex: Male
Race: Half-orc
Ethnicity: N/A
Age: Late teens to early twenties
Admitted by: Count Haserton Lowels
Admitted for: Amnesia, fugue state
Symptoms: Unresponsiveness, lack of memory, confusion, associative behavior
Notes: Slightly green skin betrays orc blood, though coloration is indicative of thin orc blood, possibly less than half (one parent was a half-orc?). Patient is accompanied by a rat, Lowels states it is a pet and should be left with the patient, but to "watch out for it". Staining on the fingers indicates some sort of herbalist or apothecary background, though no such equipment was admitted with patient
Patient: Amalthia
Sex: Female
Race: Human (?)
Ethnicity: Varisian (?)
Age: 30-33
Admitted by: Count Haserton Lowels
Admitted for: Amnesia, fugue state
Symptoms: Unresponsiveness, lack of memory, confusion, associative behavior
Notes: Patient appears human, but given her pale skin, slender build, long nails and heterochromia, it is possible she is not fully human. Other bloodline is unknown, further investigation is needed. Patient was admitted with a silver ring, indicating spouse, and physical examination show signs that patient has given birth. Lowels refused to answer questions about these facts when mentioned, stating "don't worry about that".
Patient: Magnusson, Ragnar
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Ethnicity: Ulfen
Age: Unknown-At least Late Twenties
Admitted by: Count Haserton Lowels
Admitted for: Amnesia, fugue state
Symptoms: Unresponsiveness, lack of memory, confusion, associative behavior
Notes: Patient was admitted with a symbol of Saranrae, and clearly a worshiper of some sort. No spouse or family information provided by Lowels. Physical examination reveals scaring and stress indicative of combat and much travel. Patient is often seen mouthing words to themselves, though nothing can be distinguished (possible prayer?).
"Z...Z for Zandalus..." Toad mutters, brushing aside piles of paper with the handle of his axe.
"Wait a second--" his jaw clenches, his pupils dilate as he glances through the papers. "But not all Z," he glances at Amy. "A patient with a silver ring and heterochromia." He hands Amy her file. "And others with distinctive scars." And Victor's and George's.
He examines the file for the half-orc with a rat. He has to read it twice, as the words don't make any sense the first time. Amnesia. Fugue state. Malugar. Half-orc. Early twenties. Unresponsiveness. Malugar. Counter Hasteron Lowels. Half-orc. Malugar. Herbalist. Pet rat.
Malugar.
"Malugar." The words feels strange in his mouth, and sounds even stranger to his half, no, quarter-orc ears. "My name is Malugar."
Amy takes the file and reads it carefully.
"Amalthia..." she says, trying out the name aloud. It's not something she would have guessed, but she had guessed close.
She goes back to reading the paper.
Human?
Why the question mark? Clearly she was human! What kind of foolish doctor ran this place! And Varisian?! She was far too pale! ...Wasn't she? And...
Suddenly Amy Amalthia goes pale. Her hands shake, and her eyes water. She clamps a hand to her mouth in shock. A moment later she bursts into tears and falls to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably.
She lets go of her mouth, clutches the paper to her chest and places a protective hand over the stomach with the other.
"I have a baby..." she sobs. "Where's my child?"
"So it appears that I'm not George but Shirrin. That name seems neither familiar nor strange. Its just a name.
I may have a sister who lives? At least I don't have a wife waiting for me to come home.
And we were all admitted with the same symptoms by the same person. To speak the obvious, that is no coincidence."
Ragnar went to comfort Amalthia "They are probably safer than us, with their father perhaps or your other family? It is better for them to be there than in this place. We will find a way out of here."
Malugar's looking terribly confused and uncomfortable. "Well, we haven't found them yet, so like Victor, um Ragnar, says, they're probably somewhere much better than this. Once we figure out how to escape from here, I'm sure we'll be able to track them down."
Toad nods at Shirrin, and wonders about his own family, or if he even has one.
"This bastard Lowels put us in here, and I aim to figure out why."
Amy wipes the tears from her face and nods her head.
"You're right... You're right."
It sounds like she's trying to convince herself that's true.
She stands and shoves the paper in her bag.
"We don't need to wait on me." she says between sniffles. "Let's get out of here."
Ragnar opens the door into the other room.
The new names seem artificial, meaningless, as Toad's come to know the others as Amy, George, and Victor. And Toad, he thinks.
He hefts his ax and his rat, following Ragnar into the next room.
The door opens to yet another records room. The walls of the crowded room are covered by filing cabinets, except for one space where a battered old painting of a somber, towering structure hangs.
Ragnar starts checking the area for anything useful whether it be in the paperwork or objects like medicine or other items. It does seem odd to him that they put a painting in a records room beside another records room and goes to check it out considering they might have hidden a key on the far side of the frame or some such.
I know OOC what is meant to be there but not trying to metagame it occured to me that the placement of the painting was odd as I was typing it out. You of course might be changing things but I wanted you to know my reasoning.
Shirrin will go into the room and see if he can find anything interesting. Does he recognize what the painting is of?
The painting is a somber, gothic representation of Briarstone Asylum, though it's size and grandeur makes it seem out of place in a simple records room. Moving the painting reveals a small brass latch in the wall
Ragnar tries to use the latch in the wall and see if he can open it.
The latch opens a small panel in the wall. Inside is a small lock box and a series of papers. The name on the first paper jumps out you.
Patient Record: Ulver Zandalus
Male, Varisian descent, approximate age 47
Home suspected to be Rozenport, Versex County
Committed: 2 Sarenith 4685
Circumstances: Transferred from Pharasmin lamentations in Rozenport
Attending Doctor: Eliege Losandro
Zandalus exhibits complete withdrawal from society and an
inability to care for himself in any but the most basic modes.
The symptoms of his passive antisociality chronically present
as mutism and blankness. Frequent night terrors result in
brief but dramatic nocturnal outbursts_shouting, shaking, fear
responses. Zandalus grasps the difference between sleep and
wakefulness and typically recovers from nightmares quickly.
Treatment: Therapy, antipsychotic regimen, observation
Development: 2/4687_Zandalus proves to be a gifted and
prolific artist. He has enthusiastically taken to using a charcoal
drawing set to create dramatic but fanciful works of art,
typically of surreal architecture and skyscapes. Art calms him
in the wake of nightmare. He will be afforded basic supplies
to continue such art therapy.
Development: 11/4702_A shift has occurred in Zandalus’s art. He
has repeatedly almost perfectly illustrated one of the ancient
standing stones situated at the northwestern corner of the
asylum grounds. As the isle’s shores are off-limits to patients, I
do not believe he has ever seen the subject of his work. The
significance or coincidence of this brooks further study.
Development: 3/4715_Count Haserton Lowls has taken an interest
in Zandalus: first his art and now the artist. Lowls has become
a repeat visitor, spending hours with my patient, but refuses to
explain his interest.
The next page gives a brief history of Zandalus as a student at Rozenport’s Sincomakti School of Sciences, known mostly for his artistic renditions of scared sites of ancient Osirion, Kelesh, and Ninshabur empires. He returned to Rozenport horribly scarred after an expedition to Katheer, and has since bounced between hospices before coming to Briarstone. The rest of the papers is an extensive documentary of session and therapy notes by Losandro, though few are worth reading, as there was little change in Zandlus's condition for much of his stay at Briarstone.
"This is ominous to say the least." Ragnar say as he reads the papers before checking the lockbox. "Information if not quite answers."
"Nightmares. Sounds familiar. I wonder what to make of the standing stone? Maybe we should try to locate it ourselves. And what became of Zandalus?"
"See it ourselves?" she shakes her head and crosses her arms, rubbing her hands up and down as if cold. "If we ever get out of here..." Amalthia replies.
"If the stone is on asylum grounds perhaps it is NOT within the fog. Although I thought we'd found no way to get anywhere close to the shore."
"We'll recognise it if we see it. No one has tried to kill us in this room and it's shed some light on the situation so for that I am thankful."
The lockbox is, as it's namesake implies, locked.
"Locked in a hidden cache, there must be something of some kind of value in it. Hopefully not something purely academic and irrelevant to the current situation."
"Well, I can try and open the box"
"Let me try again"
"If that doesn't work, let's just smash it open."
The second time Shirrin tries, to pick the lock, thee is a soft click and the lid swings open. Inside are 40 gp, six pearls, and a calling card for the services of the Thrushmoor offices of the Sleepless Detective Agency that prominently bears an accusatory eye. Additionally, there is a sword in a crimson scabbard. The pommel is sculpted in the shape of a cardinal and an etched gold band bears the name Red Destiny.
Ragnar holds up some of the coins and pearls before dropping them back in the box and shaking his head "Useless wealth. The sword looks of fine make at least."
"Detective agency, huh. Somebody was paying to snoop around, I guess.
Nice weapon..." Malugar examines red destiny for magical properties.
"But a little too slick for me. Anyone good with a short sword?"